“Jamilla’s.”
Her suite is on the floor below us and Tati takes my arm as we walk. “Liam…” her eyes are wet. “It could be a mistake, right? It was dark.”
“It could…” I smile as we pass two of the girls from the Assassins division as they pass us. They don’t smile back. “The Dean will strip the poor man down and get a look, and it’s possible that it’s not the same tattoo. Don’t think about it right now, okay?”
I remember the story Liam told us on the first day back at school, about his mother and his dad’s ashes under his fingernails, how hard I laughed. Sucking in a deep breath, I pull Tati along faster. “Let’s get this over with.”
Jamilla’s eyes are narrow with suspicion when she reluctantly opens the door, Günter hovering behind her. “What’s up?”
“Can we come in?” I ask.
Her gaze darts between me and Tatiana, “Sure.”
We all stand a safe distance from each other. “Did anyone go after you last night?” I ask. It’s obvious they’re both exhausted.
“No, but there were a couple of other newcomers who got roughed up,” she said, rubbing her eyes wearily. “I heard Kon and Lucca stopped Haneul from getting stabbed. My roommate stayed with her friends last night, so we slept together here. Günter is the only one I trust.”
“Agreed,” Günter said sourly.
“I’m going to ask you for something weird,” I said awkwardly. “I know how it sounds, but will you take off your clothes?”
Günter bursts out laughing and Jamilla looks at me like I’m something stuck to the bottom of her shoe. “Are you serious?”
“That was smooth, fam,” Tatiana sighed. “But there is a good reason, we promise. Look. We’ll stand on this side of the room, you stand on that side. We all strip down to our underwear at the same time. Nothing to hide, right?”
They look at each other. “You two better have a really good fucking reason for this,” she warned.
We retreat to our separate corners and I pull off my sweater. “This is so messed up, I can’t believe I’m stripping down for two people who might want to murder us,” Tati hisses in my ear.
“I know, but it’s reasonable. Why would they trust us if we don’t do the same?” I said, unbuttoning my jeans.
Jamilla keeps a close eye on us, but poor Günter doesn’t seem to know where to look. When she’s down to her panties and bra, she puts her hands on her hips. “Now what?”
This is the most dangerous moment. Taking a deep breath, I say, “We’re looking for tattoos.”
She frowns. “I have three. This one…” she points to a starburst on her shoulder, “here…” a rose on her hip. Turning, she points to her shoulder blade. “And that.” It’s a pretty series of initials. None of her ink looks like the tattoo.
“Günter?” She nods at him. “Get it over with.”
“I’m German,” he groused, “it’s not such a thing in our family. I don’t have any.” He still sighs and turns slowly, showing us his unmarked skin.
“Now, you two,” she says sharply. We both raise our arms and spin before we all dress hastily again.
“Now that we’ve had that deeply uncomfortable bonding moment,” I said, “I need you to know how important this is. We trust you. I can’t tell you if there are any newcomers involved, but there’s a group of students embedded here who we believe killed Lauren, Morgan, and Juan. We believe they’re linked with a tattoo, a teal blue one, it was shaped like a four dimensional box with a triangle inside. Can you think of anyone new that you’ve seen with a tattoo like this?” I sketch it out on the back of an envelope on her counter.
“It’s possible…” Günter hesitates. “Carlo, he was changing in the gym, I saw something like this on his hip.”
“Carlo from the Warriors?” I said, “He was on Lucca’s team for the Leader’s Challenge.”
He’s worried, but he nods slowly. “I can’t guarantee it’s the same one. I just noticed it because of the unusual color.”
“Why don’t you both join us for breakfast?” Tati says, “We’re still not completely sure about our group, so no talking about tattoos in front ofanyonebut Kon and Lucca, okay?”
“Agreed,” Jamilla says, pulling her wild corkscrew curls up into a tidy pile on top of her head. “See you there.”
When we get to the table for breakfast, Liam is missing.
Konstantin…
